Two of the Bundesliga's deadliest forwards go head-to-head on Friday evening as Borussia Dortmund welcome Hoffenheim to Signal Iduna Park in the third weekend of the Bundesliga season.
Erling Braut Haaland and Dortmund will be looking to bounce back from their defeat last time out against Andrej Kramaric and Hoffenheim.
Match preview
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Marco Rose's reign at Dortmund has started in a rather mixed fashion since his summer arrival from Borussia Monchengladbach.
After beginning with a comfortable 3-0 win over SV Wehen Wiesbaden in the DFB-Pokal, which saw Haaland kickstart his season with a hat-trick, BVB got their Bundesliga campaign off to a flyer with a 5-2 victory at home to Eintracht Frankfurt, with Haaland being the star man again with a brace of goals and assists.
However, since then the hosts have tasted defeat in two consecutive matches. Firstly, their constant struggles against Bayern Munich continued with a 3-1 loss in the DFL-Supercup, despite their opponents failing to find their full stride in the early stages of the new season.
The Supercup defeat was then followed by another back in the league last weekend at the hands of Freiburg. These kinds of losses against mid-table opponents are what have cost Dortmund a consistent challenge to Bayern's titles in recent years, and this season has started no differently.
Despite dominating the ball and probing for large periods of the game, the Black and Yellow fell to a 2-1 defeat, with only an own goal from Freiburg's Yannik Keitel to show for their large number of efforts on goal.
Haaland and co now look ahead to Friday's match as an opportunity to erase the memory of two defeats in the last week and to get back amongst the goals.
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Hoffenheim travel to Signal Iduna Park on Friday in a slightly more buoyant mood than their hosts after an unbeaten start to the new season.
After a disappointing 2020-21 campaign saw them finish in 11th place, the away side have carried on from their strong finish to that poor season, into this one.
After opening with a 3-2 win over Viktoria Koln after extra time, which saw them progress into the second round of the DFB-Pokal, Hoffenheim thrashed Augsburg 4-0 on the opening day of the new Bundesliga season.
Last season's 20-goal top scorer Kramaric was on top form in the opener, registering three assists for his teammates.
Despite failing to score in last weekend's 2-2 draw at home to Union Berlin as well, the Croatian forward did manage to record another assist, to take his tally to four assists and two goals already this season, after scoring a brace in the cup tie.
The visitors will also remain hopeful of achieving a positive result after an impressive recent record over their hosts - Hoffenheim have only lost once to Dortmund in the last seven meetings, including the last three away trips.
Included within those last three visits was a 4-0 thrashing on the final day of the 2019-20 season, with star man Kramaric bagging all four goals that day. He, and his side, will be hoping for a similar occasion on Friday.
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Team News
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Dortmund's defensive issues swung both ways in last weekend's defeat to Freiburg, with vital leader Mats Hummels playing his first minutes of the season with a substitute appearance, whilst full-back Nico Schulz went off injured in the first half.
The hosts have struggled with injuries in the defensive department throughout pre-season and the beginning of the new campaign.
Schulz remains doubtful so Raphael Guerreiro should come into the side, whilst fellow defenders Marcel Schmelzer, Mateu Morey, Dan-Axel Zagadou and Soumaila Coulibaly remain unavailable with knee injuries.
Further up the field, Thorgan Hazard also remains out with an ankle injury, but despite picking up a knock last weekend, Giovanni Reyna should be available to start again.
Meanwhile, the visitors have no fresh injury concerns for Friday's match, although striker Ishak Belfodil has moved on to Hertha Berlin this week.
Jacob Bruun Larsen will be looking to score against his former club and will start the match after scoring in each of the opening two league games so far.
Ermin Bicakcic (knee), Benjamin Hubner (ankle) and Havard Nordtveit (thigh) remain unavailable to leave the visitors a little light in defenders themselves.
Pavel Kaderabek (calf) and Ihlas Bebou remain doubts, with the latter recovering from COVID-19.
Borussia Dortmund possible starting lineup:
Kobel; Can, Akanji, Hummels, Guerreiro; Bellingham, Witsel, Dahoud; Reyna; Haaland, Reus
Hoffenheim possible starting lineup:
Baumann; Akpoguma, Posch, Vogt, Raum; Rudy, Stiller; Baumgartner, Kramaric, Bruun Larsen; Rutter
We say: Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Hoffenheim
Despite Dortmund's defeats in their last two matches and Hoffenheim's unbeaten start to the season, we expect the hosts to overcome their visitors back in front of their own fans.
Goals are to be expected when these two sides meet, and BVB's home matches usually serve up a high amount.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Borussia Dortmund win with a probability of 47.75%. A win for Hoffenheim had a probability of 30.01% and a draw had a probability of 22.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Borussia Dortmund win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.12%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (6.52%) and 2-0 (6.19%). The likeliest Hoffenheim win was 1-2 (7.06%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (9.6%). The actual scoreline of 3-2 was predicted with a 4.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Borussia Dortmund would win this match.
